Wax Laces Part 8: The Rick Rypien is in Trouble Edition

Yikes. Not a good sight last night in Minnesota. First, the sucker punch. Excusable. Then, the contact with referee. This is when Colin Campbell (why is his name pronounced Cole-uhn?) leaned forward in his chair and pressed RECORD on his PVR. Then the semi-assault on the fan while leaving through the tunnel. That’s when the incident went from a quick-hitter on SportsCentre to a national news story with headlines like PLAYER ATTACKS FAN. Not good for the overall image of a game that is trying to be less about violence and goonery and more about finesse and skill. On the upside, they say no publicity is bad publicity and the Rypien story was top three on ESPN, a rarity for the NHL.

My take is this. Obviously Rypien snapped. He had already fought and lost to Staubitz, we were getting creamed and the refs weren’t going to let them go for Round 2. So now Rick is in a punching mood and is being told the only thing he going to be able to hit is the showers. Then some jobshow Wild fan starts beaking off and Rypien decides to put the fear of God in to the guy. Surprisingly he actually showed some restraint. He didn’t punch him, just grabbed him, albeit forcefully, and probably made the guy deuce his Dickies. Is it okay? No. Was it stupid? God yes. Will he be punished? Severely. The NHL is pretty good at handing out crazy suspensions when the national media spotlight is glaring (See: Bertuzzi, Todd) and you better believe Campbell is looking at giving him at least 10 if only as a deterrent. I have always been one of Rypien’s biggest fans, I was in attendance on that magical evening he sent Hal Gill back to space (see above). But Tuesday night in Minny was not one for the scrapbook, and for a guy that is almost always hurt or missing time for personal reasons, this might be a tough one to bounce back from. Hopefully he has the support he needs from his teammates and even moreso some respect from the media. Multiple NHL players threw him under the bus today and more than a few moron journalists made wisecracks about him being off his meds or crazy. That’s BS. I bet every player in the league has wanted to snap a fan’s neck at some point and jabs at a player’s mental health from the comfort of a keyboard is just classless. Even I know that. I for one like him even more now and hope he gets back in as soon as his supension is up. If half the players wanted it half as bad as Rick Rypien we’d be holding a parade come June.

On to the fantasy business.

Minor happenings that could have a major impact on the fantasy hockey season.

Joel Quenneville and his enchanted moustache say Brian Campbell is due to return skating sometime soon. It might be worth a roster spot to snatch him up early and let him ride the bench for a bit until he gets better.

Tyler Ennis gets dropped down and now plays with Mike Grier and some other guy who isn’t very good at putting hockey pucks in hockey nets. Doesn’t matter though. Ennis is so good he will either play his way back in to the top six or make that line productive. He is also getting PP mins still so don’t stress. Ennis is good for it.

Who is Matt Taormina? Only the number one D-man on New Jerseys PP unit. He joins an already impressive list of rookies that are making solid contributions in the early stages of 2010-11. If you’re in a keeper especially, grab him. For those of you who were unfortunate to have Andy Greene on your team, drop him like he’s Olli Jokinen.

John-Michael “Don’t Call me John” Liles leads the league in scoring among defenseman. With studs up front like Duchene, Stastny and Stewart (have you seen these guys play?), Liles is no early season anomaly. You can go ahead and pick him up. Like right now. I’ll wait…….

Moving on. Drury fractured the same finger he hurt in preseason only in a different place and Marian Gaborik hurt his shoulder on what looked like a nothing play. In other news, water is wet and Rick Rypien is getting suspended.

Jordan Staal should be back soon. This hurts the value of a guy like Letestu, who has seen good minutes with the second-best Staal out of commission. Asham back soon too.

Sticking with the Pens. Fleury is going to get back in net tomorrow so for those of you who drafted him and have gotten nothing, put down the bottle of pills. Until Friday.

Had to see the Tim Thomas-Tuukka Rask situation coming. Thomas is a gamer and wasn’t about to let some Finnish punk steal his starter’s spot. They will fight for starts, and you will fight the urge to punch yourself in the groin for picking Rask over Vokoun.

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